January 23rd marked six months with Anjali. In many ways I can't believe it's already been six months, but in many ways it feels like she has been with us her whole life. It feels so right to have her in our lives. I am so used to her sweet smile and loving touch. Anjali has grown so much as a person in the past six months. She has experienced so much and her world has been opened up in so many ways. Her English has improved leaps and bounds and she is starting to use full sentences. Her confidence at living in her adopted country is growing day by day. I hope she maintains the excitement and sheer joy for living that she possesses. Anjali's Certificate of Citizenship came in this week. Next, we will readopt her in North Carolina and then apply for her social security number and U.S. passport. Although we had planned to go out for Indian food to celebrate six months properly, we ended up being snowed in for 3 days. It was our first snow of the year here in Raleigh and Anjali's first time getting to see snow. Unfortunately, it was more ice than snow, so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked, but what we did get was some wonderful downtime as a family to just relax around the house. Of course, we did get outside for a little bit and I showed Anjali how to make and throw a snowball at her Papa. I also made her a mini snowman which she also threw at her Papa, once I handed it to her.
This month, I started her in a 1 hour a week parent child pre-school class at Marbles Museum, a children's museum here which she enjoys. She loves the idea of school and this class called Preschool Discover is a great introduction to school. Each class starts with a couple of songs and we sing and dance, then we switch to a room that is set up in a variety of stations that focus on different developmental areas. The children are free to explore the stations as they wish. They end the class with clean up time and a couple more songs as a group. We then spend an additional 45 minutes to an hour in the museum after class.
We had our first car road trip as a family this month traveling 5 hours to Baltimore to go to Johns Hopkins hospital to visit with specialists there. We were so impressed with everyone at Johns Hopkins and know she will have the best of care there. The week prior to that we had to get the okay from our pediatrician. Anjali also got six vaccinations. One nurse with a needle on each side 3 times. Ouch! This month was tough with regards to medical procedures and testing. She got her eyes tested and dialated (she is getting glasses soon!) as well as had to have blood drawn and be put under anesthesia. Anjali became a bit ill and the stress of it all triggered some regression in her. She's been a bit needy and temperamental this month. She started the month off liking doctors and hospitals and ended up by saying, "No more hospitals, please." I don't blame her, but I hope to bring back those positive feelings about hospitals, because it is going to be part of her reality.
Anjali's passion for music and dance is shining through. She enjoys playing her ukelele and xylophone and her repertoire of songs that she knows is growing. There is nothing cuter than watching her belt out a song as she strums her ukelele. She has also learned how to use her Papa's record player and loves to dance to music played on the stereo. She and I made up a song together based on the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" that we both love to sing together:
Are you my beti(daughter)? Are you my beti?
Yes, I am. Yes I am.
Mama, Papa here. Love and good cheer.
Anjali's home. Anjali's home.
Another budding passion of Anjali's seems to be photography. I printed up about 300 photos for her from our time together so far and put them in a shoe box and continue to add new photos to the collection. It's neat to watch her go through them and talk with her about her memories from all the different places we have been in the last month. She also has figured out how to take photos with an old iPhone that we let her use to listen to music. She has taken some suprisingly good photos. Here are a couple of my favorites.
I read the book Parenting your Internationally Adopted Child by Patty Cogen before we brought Anjali home and in it she encourages parents to make a 3 photo story for the child to help them tell their story and answer the question, "What happened to me?" I finally got around to creating this 3 photo story for Anjali. In the first frame is a picture of her and her best friend Naveen at the orphanage. The second picture is of the handing over ceremony where two of the sisters hand over Anjali to us and the final picture is of us in front of our house when we first got back to Raleigh. I printed multiple copies of it for her to have and we talk about it. Anjali is such a resilient, happy girl and my hope is that she will be proud of where she came from and continue on a journey of building her confidence, passions and abilities as she explores the world around her. Most of all, I hope she knows that we love her more than anything and that we are here for her through it all. She has brought so much joy and love into our lives and we are grateful and humbled to be her parents.
This month, I started her in a 1 hour a week parent child pre-school class at Marbles Museum, a children's museum here which she enjoys. She loves the idea of school and this class called Preschool Discover is a great introduction to school. Each class starts with a couple of songs and we sing and dance, then we switch to a room that is set up in a variety of stations that focus on different developmental areas. The children are free to explore the stations as they wish. They end the class with clean up time and a couple more songs as a group. We then spend an additional 45 minutes to an hour in the museum after class.
We had our first car road trip as a family this month traveling 5 hours to Baltimore to go to Johns Hopkins hospital to visit with specialists there. We were so impressed with everyone at Johns Hopkins and know she will have the best of care there. The week prior to that we had to get the okay from our pediatrician. Anjali also got six vaccinations. One nurse with a needle on each side 3 times. Ouch! This month was tough with regards to medical procedures and testing. She got her eyes tested and dialated (she is getting glasses soon!) as well as had to have blood drawn and be put under anesthesia. Anjali became a bit ill and the stress of it all triggered some regression in her. She's been a bit needy and temperamental this month. She started the month off liking doctors and hospitals and ended up by saying, "No more hospitals, please." I don't blame her, but I hope to bring back those positive feelings about hospitals, because it is going to be part of her reality.
Anjali's passion for music and dance is shining through. She enjoys playing her ukelele and xylophone and her repertoire of songs that she knows is growing. There is nothing cuter than watching her belt out a song as she strums her ukelele. She has also learned how to use her Papa's record player and loves to dance to music played on the stereo. She and I made up a song together based on the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" that we both love to sing together:
Are you my beti(daughter)? Are you my beti?
Yes, I am. Yes I am.
Mama, Papa here. Love and good cheer.
Anjali's home. Anjali's home.
Another budding passion of Anjali's seems to be photography. I printed up about 300 photos for her from our time together so far and put them in a shoe box and continue to add new photos to the collection. It's neat to watch her go through them and talk with her about her memories from all the different places we have been in the last month. She also has figured out how to take photos with an old iPhone that we let her use to listen to music. She has taken some suprisingly good photos. Here are a couple of my favorites.
I read the book Parenting your Internationally Adopted Child by Patty Cogen before we brought Anjali home and in it she encourages parents to make a 3 photo story for the child to help them tell their story and answer the question, "What happened to me?" I finally got around to creating this 3 photo story for Anjali. In the first frame is a picture of her and her best friend Naveen at the orphanage. The second picture is of the handing over ceremony where two of the sisters hand over Anjali to us and the final picture is of us in front of our house when we first got back to Raleigh. I printed multiple copies of it for her to have and we talk about it. Anjali is such a resilient, happy girl and my hope is that she will be proud of where she came from and continue on a journey of building her confidence, passions and abilities as she explores the world around her. Most of all, I hope she knows that we love her more than anything and that we are here for her through it all. She has brought so much joy and love into our lives and we are grateful and humbled to be her parents.
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